The ivy in the garden is looking good and buzzing with Ivy Bees.
And there have been up to seven splendid Red Admirals on it in the past few days.
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Standing up for Nature
The ivy in the garden is looking good and buzzing with Ivy Bees.
And there have been up to seven splendid Red Admirals on it in the past few days.
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A fantastic habitat providing food for insects and birds and shelter during the winter months. And yet the scorn directed at this plant by a good many always amazes me.
Yes, a very underrated plant. Fortunately it grows widely in spite of the antipathy directed at it from some quarters.
ours is the same, absolutely loads of red admirals, ivy bees and different kinds of hoverflies. We’ve spotted a number of wasps, as yet unidentified, that are preying on bluebottle flies in the main. They lie flat against a leaf in the shadows of the ivy and then ambush unsuspecting flies feeding on the ivy nectar. Lots of spiders also using the ivy to trap insects. Just goes to show what a fantastic resource this is for insect life at this time of year.
Lovely photo, Mark.
I agree with all this – ivy is wonderful.
Ours is also feeding many (unknown to me) beasties – but I do recognise the beautiful Comma butterflies on it today, in the sun.
Good old ivy flowers, you can rely on them for a lovely buzz at this time of year. But the rope-like stems are fickle. Yes, they can take a fair amount of downward force but pulling on them at right angles can deliver a terrible buzz.
Good old ivy flowers, you can rely on them for a lovely buzz at this time of year. But ivy’s rope-like stems are fickle. Yes, they can take a fair amount of downward force but pulling on them at right angles can deliver a terrible buzz.
And as the ivy goes over (or even before) try putting some rotting banana or plumbs out. Red admirals and commas love the fermenting juices and stay ‘plugged in’ even on close inspection.
We counted 38 red admirals up our lane and in our garden a week last Sunday. They were feeding on ivy, hemp agrimony and michaelmas daisies. Several vis miggers (visible (bird) migration watchers) on the trektellen website have reported red admirals flying south from various hill top vantage points and that may account for the marked drop in numbers recently while others may have followed the peacocks into hibernation.
Ps. Ivy bees haven’t reached us yet…..